Wheeled toy with wheel-actuated devices



T. E. BYRNES WHEELED TOY WITH WHEEL-ACTUATED DEVICES Jan. 28, 1964 2Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 5, 1961 INVENTOR. 1'7. Barnes,

I I m Jan. 28, 1964 T. E. BYRNES WHEELED TOY WITH WHEEL-ACTUATED DEVICESFiled Feb. 3, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent Ofiice3,119,199 Patented Jan. 28, 19fi4 3,119,199 WHEELED TGY WITHWHEEL-ACTUATED DEVHCES Thomas E. Byrnes, Bull Valley Road, Woodstock,Ill. Filed Feb. 3, 1%1, Ser. No. 86,977 1 Claim. (Cl. 46-294) Thisinvention relates to a toy and more particularly to a movable toy whichallows variations in locations of movable parts to entertain the user.

It is common to produce toys for children which may be drawn across thefloor by means of a drawstring or the like. Children often becomedisinterested in such toys since they do not afford any opportunity forchange or reconstruction. The toy of this invention is one which may bemoved as by a drawstring or the like, and which does provideopportunities for reconstruction and change in its outer appearance.

The advantages of the toy of this invention are provided by the use of aplurality of rollers or the like, which may be inserted at randomfashion, all of the rollers being movable regardless of their positionon movement of the toy.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a toy such asdescribed.

It is another object of this invention to provide such a toy wherein therollers are transparent and may contain additional objects such asfigures and the like, which will also move on movement of the toy.

it is still another object of this invention to provide a toy whichcomprises a frame, a plurality of frame supporting rollers adapted toprovide rolling support for the frame as it moves upon the floor, meansin the frame for receiving and retaining additional rollers at randompositions, and at least one additional roller adapted to be positionedin the means in said random fashion so that frictional driving contactis maintained between the additional roller and at least one of thesupporting rollers whereby said additional rollers are rotated uponmoveme-nt of the frame.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent fromthe specification taken together with the following drawings.

of the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the embodiment of the toy of thisinvention;

FIGURE 2 is a side elevational view of the toy shown in FIGURE 1;

FIGURES 3 and 4 are end and top views respectively, of the toy of FIGURE2;

FIGURE 5 is a sectional view of a roller; and

FIGURES 6- through 8 and are side elevational views of other embodimentsof the toy of this invention, FIGURE 9 being an end View of theembodiment of FIGURE 8.

Turning now to the drawings, FIGURE 1 shows one embodiment of the toy 10of this invention. This e-rnbOdllITl6Dt includes a frame 11 which issupported for motion on a plurality of rollers 12 located near the base11a of the frame. The rollers 12 include a pair of spheres 13 joined byan axle 14. The axle 11 i passes through the base of the frame Ila sothat the rollers 12 are permanently positioned in the base of the frame.These rollers 12 allow the frame 11 to tell when pulled by thedrawstring 15 which is attached to an eye 16 screwed into the frame.

The frame 11 includes a plurality of slots 17 through 23. The slots aresubstantially similar except that slots 17, 18, 22 and 2,3 are shorterthan slots .19 through 2 1. Slot 17 has side walls 17a and 17b and abottom wall 170 as do the other slots.

A plurality of additional rollers 24 are designed to be inserted intothe slots just described. Each of these rollers also includes a pair ofspheres 25 and an axle 26. The spheres 25 may be made of wood or may behollow and made of a transparent plastic material such as shown inFIGURE 5. In this case, the spheres can contain additional objects whichmay be figures and the like. Other shaped rollers may be used since itis only necessary that the spheres 25 have a rollable surface such as at25a which will contact an adjacent sphere.

As can be seen in FIGURE 1, the slots 17 through 23 are designed toreceive and retain a plurality of the rollers 24. In FIGURE 1, the slotsare actually all full of rollers, the slots receiving the axle 26 andthereby holding the rollers in place. In this condition it can be seenthat each sphere 25 contacts at least one of the other spheres in therollers 24 and that the bottom row of rollers 2-idesignated at A,contacts the rollers 12. Because of this, when the toy is pulled acrossthe floor, rolling motion will be imparted from the rollers 12; to therollers 24 so that all of the rollers will move in one direction oranother on motion of the toy. However, it is not necessary to completelyfill the slots with rollers 24. As can be seen in FIGURE 2, the rollerscan be located in a random fashion. Thus in FIGURE 2, there is no rollerin the slot 17 or the slot 21, yet because all the remaining rollerscontact at least one other roller and because the bottom row stillcontacts the rollers I2, motion will still be imparted to the insertedrollers 24. This allows the user of the toy to locate the rollers in anyfashion desirable and still obtain motion of the rollers.

FIGURES 6 through 8 and 10 show other embodiments of the frame memberill all including, however, the same principle. Thus in FIGURE 6 adifferent shape frame 27 includes two pairs of rollers 12 and anadditional sphere 28. In FIGURE 7, the frame 29 is in the form of a toytrain including a toy caboose 30, a toy car 31, and a toy engine 32,each of which are provided with slots 3%, 3%, 31a, lalb, and 310 and32a. Rollers 24 are designed to be inserted into these slots.

In FIGURES 8 and 9, the frame 33 has a shape of a clown 33 with theclowns hand defining a slot 33b designed to receive a roller 24.

FIGURE 10 shows a frame 34- which is in the shape of an elephant, theelephants tail 34a defining a slot 34b and the elephants trunk 34cdefining a slot 34d. Each of these slots is designed to receive a roller24.

All of the constructions of FIGURES 6 through 8 and 10 provide the sameopportunities for relocation of rollers as the construction of FIGURE 1so that the user may change the toy as he desires.

Having thus described my invention as related to the embodiments shownin the accompanying drawings, it is my intention that the invention benot limited by any of the details of description unless otherwisespecified, but rather be construed broadly within its spirit and scopeas set out in the accompanying claim.

I claim:

A movable toy, comprising: an upstanding frame having a thickness lessthan its height; a plurality of pairs of frame supporting rollerssubstantially permanently mounted for rotation on said frame at spacedpositions adjacent the bottom of said frame with the rollers of saidpairs being on the opposite sides of said frame, said rollers beingadapted to provide rolling support for said frame; a plurality ofsubstantially vertically extending transverse slots in said frame, saidslots being open on the top surface of said frame for receiving andretaining additional rollers in random positions superposed inrelationship to said permanently mounted rollers, some of said slotsbeing deeper than others of said slots so that the bottoms of some ofsaid slots are adjacent the location of said supporting rollers; and aplurality of additional rollers, each having rollable surfaces and ashaft thcreoetween, said shafts being adapted to be positioned in saidslots in random fashion with the rollable surfaces of said rollerspositioned outside of either side of said frame in peripheral engagementwith at least one of said supporting rollers and the rollable surfacesof any additional rollers positioned thereabove in the same or adjacentslots, so that rotation of said supporting rollers upon movement of saidframe will cause rotation of said additional rollers.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTSWainola Nov. 15, Winnernore July 28, Ayres Y Aug. 21, Beder Apr. 29,Mosher Mar. 30, Bolger Dec, 4, Cavanagh Nov. 2, Kelley June 14,

